What zalgo text is
Zalgo text, also called glitch or cursed text, is normal text with dozens of combining marks stacked on each letter. It's named after a horror meme from the mid-2000s, where text melting off the page meant something had gone very wrong.
Combining marks are Unicode characters meant for accents, like the line over ā or the hook under ę. Each one draws on top of the character before it. Unicode has over 100 of them in its main combining block, and nothing stops you from adding many to one letter, so they pile up and spill into the lines above and below.
Getting the look you want
Mix the slider and the switches:
- Amount 1 to 3: a light, haunted shimmer that's still easy to read.
- Amount 4 to 6: the classic zalgo look for a word or two.
- Amount 7 to 10: full meltdown, best for a single short word.
- Marks above make spikes, marks through add scratches, marks below make drips.
Where it works, and where it doesn't
Glitch text pastes into most apps, including Discord, Instagram captions and comments, TikTok and X. Heavy text spills over the lines around it, so it can cover other people's messages, and some apps trim it, cut it off or treat it as spam. Many usernames and display names don't allow it at all.
Every mark is a character, so glitch text gets long fast. A 10-letter word at full amount can pass 200 characters, which blows through a bio limit or a 280-character post on X.
Be kind with it
Screen readers read out every mark, which makes zalgo text close to unusable for blind and low-vision readers. Use it for a spooky word or a joke, not for information people need, and avoid flooding shared chats with it.
Frequently asked questions
How do I make zalgo text?
Type your text here, set how glitchy you want it and tap Copy. The tool adds random combining marks to each letter, which is all zalgo text is.
Does glitch text work on Discord?
Yes, it pastes into Discord messages. Some servers use bots that delete heavy zalgo text because it covers other messages, so keep the amount low there.
Why is my glitch text so long?
Each mark counts as a character. At a high amount, one letter can carry 20 or more marks, so the text can be ten times longer than what you typed.
Can zalgo text break my phone?
No. It can look messy and slow down a very old app for a moment, but it's ordinary text and can't harm a device.
How do I remove zalgo from text?
Paste it into a tool that strips accents, or retype it. In code, normalising to NFD and removing characters in the U+0300 to U+036F range takes the marks off.